Mike Mitchell, the outlandish drummer

Mike Mitchell, far right, is known for his colorful dress,smile.

Mike Mitchell is an explosive young drummer. At the age of 20, he is travelling the world and playing with a legend of music, bass player Stanley Clarke. He is the latest in a jazz tradition of young drummers joining established bands.

Branford Marsalis, from the legendary New Orleans jazz family, was one of the veteran band leaders to bring up a young drummer. “The Branford Marsalis Quartet marks an exciting new era with this record, the band’s first since hiring drummer Justin Faulkner three years ago,” read the liner notes from the album Four MFs Playing tunes. “There is a decades-long tradition in jazz of young drummers joining established, veteran bands and helping spark the music to a new level. The most famous example occurred in 1963 when seventeen-year-old Tony Williams joined the Miles Davis Quintet, a legendary institution that at the time included Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Ron Carter. The young Williams brought an explosive but versatile touch and the band went to a different level. Sometimes a brilliant, still-forming young drummer can ignite fire.

“Drummer Justin Faulkner subbed for the Branford Marsalis Quartet’s longtime drummer, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, on a one-off gig in 2007 when he was only sixteen years old. When Watts left the quartet in early 2009, after twenty-five remarkable years, he left a hole that not many artists could fill. Faulkner was invited to step in. He was eighteen years old.

“The skill, power, and artistry are the same as always, but Faulkner has injected a lighter, buoyant brand of melodic propulsion to this unit. He’s like an inspired rookie joining a champion basketball team and extending the team’s run of titles by adding eagerness and versatility to go along with serious talent.”

Jazz fans are observing to see if and how Mike Mitchell affects the Stanley Clarke Band which also includes Beka Gochiashvili on piano and Cameron Graves keys.

Mike Mitchell is an ambitious young man. He has already put out his own album as a bandleader; an album called Wifi with his Dallas band Rache. The music is a cornucopia of sound, as diverse  and outlandish as Mike Mitchell’s style of dress!

On the album Wifi, the song Bump Song brings out a familiar sound to anyone who has heard Mike Mitchell’s band play around Dallas; call it Mike Mitchell and Rache’s signature sound: a little stop-and-go, bouncy, electronica sound.

Another song George Bush features rapper Lord Byron. Iga, also has a rap lead-in followed by the pita-pat of Mike Mitchell’s drumming. Birry brings out Mike Mitchell’s neck-breaking speed drumming and returns to the band signature sound.

The band slows down a bit on Hrmni Projeckt and 7^th Day – some unusual names – there is an organ and they sound like hymns, a tribute to his home of Dallas which is known for its gospel sound.

--- (those dashes is the name of the song!) returns to electronica and a rather funky sound. The song, Wisdom, is a hilarious, foul-mouthed tale of life as a musician – don’t fall off the merry-go-round, you’ll get hit in the head!